the debt ceiling is a dangerous game. i think they recognize that politically. they'll push -- the question is how -- how do they push on the debt ceiling? do they say, look, we'll give you a short-term extension of the debt ceiling for a certain amount of spending cuts, or we'll give you a long-term extension like you want for even more spending cuts. can they force entitlement reform around medicare, for instance, even some of the -- in their view -- more limited things that the president wants to do around means testing and age and indexing to try to attach that to a debt-limit deal. do they move beyond the debt limit, try to get to the continuing resolutions and those kinds of things? they recognize that this is the only area of leverage that they have, but they want to be careful about it. >> so chuck todd, how does the white house deal with that supposed leverage? >> well, first i think the republicans are hoping that they have a manti te'o defense, that somehow it was all a hoax and maybe the election was a hoax and they can go back and redo everything. n